Alumnus of the Year

Homecoming 2007
2007 Alumnus of The Year
2007 Service Award
2007 Sports Hall of Fame
2007 50 Plus Reunion 2007 Alumnus of the Year
Welch

Dr. Carl Welch (1950) of Corinth is the college's 2007 Alumnus of the Year. "Dr. Carl Welch has made great sacrifices to serve on our Development Foundation Board, and served a year as its chairperson," said HCC President Dr. Clyde Muse. "He has a very active practice of family medicine in Corinth, which is a long way from Raymond - at least four hours; but he is very conscientious about making every Foundation board meeting. He is very supportive in funding the foundation's Anne Hardy Memorial Scholarship, which was named for his aunt. Mrs. Hardy was a Hinds English department chairman who, in 1972, also was named a Hinds Alumnus of the Year. Also like his aunt, Dr. Welch is a very strong believer in the work Hinds is doing and he is constantly recommending Hinds to students that he knows."

Jackie Granberry, vice president for HCC Institutional Advancement, said that Dr. Welch gives Hinds credit for his success. "He has said that without Hinds being made available to him, he may have never received a college education," she said. "He is quick to tell anyone what Hinds has meant to him and his family and he has been involved in giving back to the college for many years. He has been active with the Alumni Association and attends his class reunion each year."

Welch recalls that his Hinds instructors tried to teach life lessons and principles along with classroom lessons. "Some of those did not make an adequate impression on me at the time," he said, "but they have remained with me and served me well throughout my lifetime." Welch, a native of Raymond, graduated in 1949 from Hinds Agricultural High School on the Hinds Junior College campus. He attended classes at the college until December 1950 when he was called to active duty with the 31st Division of the Mississippi National Guard. He served as a medical records clerk in the Clearing Company 106th Medical Battalion until his honorable discharge in September 1952. That fall, he enrolled as a full-time student at Millsaps College. While still a student, he worked 48-hour weeks as a reporter with The Clarion-Ledger; and toward the end of his senior year he left Jackson to become managing editor of the Enterprise Journal in McComb.

In September 1964, he left the newspaper and advertising business after having earned his bachelor's degree in pre-medical science at Little Rock University (now University of Arkansas at Little Rock). He then entered the University of Arkansas Medical School, where, at the end of his freshman year in 1965, he was awarded his bachelor's degree in medicine. Also, while in medical school, Welch earned his master's degree in microbiology under the National Institute of Health Honors Program. He graduated from medical school with honors in June 1968, and is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honorary society.

Because of his master's in microbiology, Welch was granted a dispensation by the American College of Clinical Pathology, enabling him to complete his residency in anatomic and clinical pathology in May 1971. At that time, he moved to Corinth, where he served as director of clinical laboratories at Magnolia Regional Health Center and the Tishomingo County Hospital until 1974. He then went into his current private practice of family medicine in Corinth and is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Since 1974, Dr. Welch has served three terms as chief of staff of the 60-member medical staff of Magnolia Regional Health Center.

For 25 years, 1974-1999, Welch was active in aviation as an instrument-rated private pilot, and has been secretary of the Corinth-Alcorn County Airport Board for the past 20 years. He is married to the former Mary Virginia Keller of Atmore, Ala. They have three sons, Samuel Bradley Welch, M. D. of Little Rock, Ark.; Lawrence Ernest Welch of Corinth; and Carl Chapman Welch Jr. of Houston, Texas. He and Mrs. Welch have three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.